Nobel winner's device listens to your gut

A non-invasive way for detecting gut disorders could replace the dreaded colonoscopy, West Australian researchers say.

UpdatedUpdated 8 November

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Gut disorders could be detected without the need for dreaded, invasive colonoscopies thanks to an invention by West Australian researchers, led by a Nobel Prize laureate.

A University of WA research team headed by Barry Marshall has invented an acoustic sensing belt that listens, records and analyses gut noises linked to gut disorders for faster and more effective diagnosis.

UWA Professor Dawn Freshwater said creating an invention that could change the way patients were treated in the future was a remarkable achievement.

"This device has the potential to vastly improve patient care and result in huge cost savings to the health care system," Prof Freshwater said.

The Noisy Guts Project has won the "emerging innovation" category in the state government's Innovator of the Year Awards.

Its not the first gut-related gong for Professor Marshall, who famously drank a petri dish containing the Helicobacter Pylori bacteria in order to prove the link between the organisms and stomach ulcers.

He and colleague Robin Warren won a Noble Prize for that research, which disproved the theory that stress caused stomach ulcers.